She gave the girl a small smile of apology for the fierceness of her reply. She stepped over to the closet and drew down a quilt, placing it at the end of Alison’s bed.
“The air conditioning gets chilly at night,” she explained.
“Christina, I think you’re wrong to trust him. He says we’re safe here, but how can you be sure?”
“I’ve known Saint for years, Alison. You can believe me when I say I’d trust him with my life.”
Alison’s expression was incredulous. “But he’s some kind of a vampire or something. He’s not human.”
“I know.”
“You knew what he was? Even when you agreed to live here on this property with your son?”
Christina closed her eyes and felt the burn of exhaustion.
“I knew he was different, yes. Truth be told, I didn’t know about the…” She paused, hesitant to call Saint a mythological creature when she felt as though the label didn’t quite fit. But even Saint had admitted that humans had labeled him thus. And Christina was human, after all.
“I didn’t know about the vampire stuff until a few weeks ago,” she admitted.
Alison sat up in bed, the bandages around her wrists making her look exponentially more fragile. “Stay away from him, Christina. He’s bad news. I can tell he has some kind of hold over you. Teslar did the same to me. He would look into my eyes and it was like his desires became mine. My own will vanished. I would have done anything for him…sacrificed my blood…died for him. Earlier in your office, I found myself telling Saint a few things I had no intention of ever revealing. He can control you, just like Teslar can.” Alison shivered visibly. “And, Christina, it was amazing. Being with Teslar was like…nirvana.”
“No. They’re different. Saint was doing that to try to stop Teslar.”
Still, it felt as if all the blood in her head rushed down in a torrent to her belly, bringing a wave of nausea with it. What if Alison was right? She’d long known Saint had the ability to command others to his will. Wasn’t it beyond odd that she should trust him so completely after the things she’d recently seen? Yet her belief in the goodness of him, a goodness that she sensed had come from unimaginable suffering, had never wavered.
She managed a tremulous smile. “Try to get some rest, Alison. Saint has assured me his grounds are protected from Teslar and those…things that follow him.”
The girl blinked heavily. “I hope so, because I’m exhausted.”
Christina said good night and left the room, trying to erase the image of Alison’s doubtful, frightened expression from her mind.
Saint didn’t move, but his gaze trailed Christina as she came out on the coach house front porch. The light from the house reflected behind her, making her sundress translucent, highlighting the beguiling feminine curves of her hips and slender, naked thighs. He felt his cock stiffen, the sensation even more urgent than his typical reaction to her nearness.
Their interrupted mating earlier that day, the heat of battle, and his sharp anxiety for Christina’s and Aidan’s safety made his need for her swell dangerously.
She said nothing as she sat in a chair next to him. She’d showered and her long, dark hair hung damply down her back and shoulders. Her clean, floral scent filled his nostrils, creating a potent chemical reaction that lit up every nerve in his body.
“What are you?”
Her soft question seemed to vibrate in the warm, still air between them.
“I am one of the Sevliss—the soulless ones. There are six of us in total, living in cities across the globe. Each of us possesses a clone. It’s
our primary mandate to keep our clone’s hunger in check.”
“What do you mean mandate? Who gave you this directive?” Christina asked, turning toward him.
“The Magian.” Saint shrugged uneasily when he saw her questioning look. “We know very little about them. They form a council of sorts and monitor our activities. For the most part, they are invisible to us. They tell us little about our purpose, but we know they watch us…study us. They are similar to us in genetic make-up, but they possess souls. They were our creators.”
“Creators?”
“I’m not like you, Christina. Kavya, the Magian who watches over me, told me Teslar and I were harvested in a laboratory. I have no memories of being young. When I came to consciousness, I was here on Earth, much as you see me now. Kavya reveals little about himself, but my brothers and I have formed our own conclusions.”
“Brothers? You mean Teslar—”
“No. I mean the other Sevliss Princes. We communicate, exchange information about the best methods for controlling our clones. We have often discussed our origins and the Magian. The general consensus is that although Earth is the only home we have ever known, our genetic material is not from here.”
“You’re an alien.”